Our 65-shirt quest at the race track

Execution: We drive up Union Ave. at 10:19 a.m., ready to sprint through the gates when the open. (Well, our version of sprint, which is more of a trot.) Figuring few others would be dedicated (aka crazy) enough to get there that early, we thought an 11-minute buffer would be more than enough.

Not so much.

From a distance, the line of people snaking down Union and East avenues looks like an American Idol audition, complete with coolers, chairs and, in some cases, the minimal clothing (it appears people are embracing the first hot day in forever). Everyone crams together, trying to get closer to the gates. The smell of sweat, cologne and beer is at near-suffocating levels. Moments like these make me happy to tower over everyone else. The fresh air is welcome.

A trio of men try peeking through the gate windows, to see who’s behind the counter.

The college-aged set, they say, are the best at keeping the line moving. They’ve mastered multitasking and have a keen ability to simultaneously count money and pass out coupons (one per person, at this point). Windows with more mature staffers are to be avoided. Those people “will talk to you, ask how you’re doing and take all day licking their fingers to separate the money.”

Who knew exchanging pleasantries- and being polite- could get you blacklisted?

So the men plot, the women talk and the kids run around restless from waiting in line. Once the turnstiles unlock, the crowd gets tighter. A man runs into my friend’s mom-twice- with his dorm room refrigerator-size cooler.

“Ow,” she says, looking up at him. He yanks again, tries to get past her. “Oww,” she repeats, a little louder.

“God, lady, move it,” he says, with one final yank, nearly running over her sandaled foot as he launches his wheeled cooler up on the curb.

My heart races and my chest tightens. I want to speak up, but figure a fight (verbal or otherwise) would seriously set us back.

We chat people up as we wait in the track entry line, getting the lowdown on “spinning” (we’re inexperienced in this “trend”).

His idea: Person No. 1 waits on the special “spinners” line (inside the track) for her five additional coupons, Person No. 2 gets in the T-shirt line and No. 3 is the “runner.” No. 1 and No. 2 call the runner when she’s reaching the front of the line. The runner then gets her T-shirt coupons, races over to the one in the T-shirt line and slides in, right before she enters the tent to get her T-shirts, or vice versa.

To think spinning requires the same organization of a child’s sleepover party …

We decide to take our own approach, with all three of us waiting in the spinner line (that way we’d end up with a total of 18 coupons initially, and 15 in each subsequent trip) then send one person (me) over to the T-shirt line while the other two get back in the spinner line for five more tickets. I stuff the shirts in my bag, embarrassed to take more than one, let alone dozens. But, I tell myself, a Maid of Honor doesn’t say “no” to a bride’s request.

And this was how we spend our day. From 10:30 a.m. till about 2 p.m. we rotate from one line to another and back, till the last T-shirt is stuffed in our bags. Standing in that final line I think “I wouldn’t even do this for myself for my own wedding.” (Nor would I do it for many other people beside “Karen.”)

In the midst of the gathering, we finagle (aka pay for) coupons from people who don’t care about a free T-shirt and are not about to wait in the lines that has to be several thousand people deep; offer to pay admissions for couples to score their ticket and “volunteer” to take the shirts off of peoples’ hands when they drop them on their path to the car, like Hansel and Gretel. Two of those methods work, one almost gets me slapped.

We only get threatened twice (and, I’ll admit, we deserve it for trying to line skip), take one bathroom/water break and get a week’s worth of exercise with all the ground we cover.

At the end of the day, we walk away with 68 shirts (yay, success!), just before they run out of coupons. I have no doubt Karen is eternally grateful, and she’d go through all this for me without hesitation.

As we lug the final 38 shirts to the car, I’m a bit ashamed … but elated.

(The above doesn’t even come close to the lady who scored 110 Tees to sell on eBay for $10 a pop. She, and many others, got harassed for their hunting and gathering. More on that later.)

54 Responses

It really should be one item per person. Not sure what the exact rules are. I was disappointed that the coupons were out when we got there. I just wanted ONE! :) It was hard not to be a little bummed when we saw people walking around with 20 + shirts. Fortunately, I still had a wonderful time people watching (crazy people with 20+ shirts), losing a little money and being with friends and family. Gotta love Saratoga!

I’m sorry, but that just screams selfish to me. I understand that your friend wants to put something together for her guests at her wedding, but to keep 65 other people out of a chance at getting a t-shirt, to me, is just selfish. Same goes for the woman getting 100 to sell on e-bay.

count me in as one of the angry ones who saw your types with the handfuls and bagfuls of shirts..and I didnt get one. It was very annoying to think that you were there shopping for your friends wedding goodie bags, I was a paying patron who did not get one. At that point yesterday, I actually decided that after I posted this, it will be my last time visiting your blog. Enough is enough-flaunting that you were taking shirts so patrons couldnt get one. I had reserved seating inside the paddock tent at $39.99 per person-so I did not feel the need to arrive there until post time. It is a shame that you took stuff like that. You kinda ruined my time at the track, and you also lost a reader. Hope your friend has a great wedding.

Why should anyone who didn’t get a shirt the first time have to pay $6 or $7 to get one now? I’m not saying that she was guaranteed to get one even if those of you spinning hadn’t done what you did, but at least she would have had an honest shot at it. On the other hand, you would think that if she spent $40 for a reserved paddock seat, that price would have included a tshirt automatically.

Some of this stuff at the track is starting to get out of hand. We went Wedensday and there was this party/get together of a racing stable which had marked ~40 tables w/ red table cloths in the back, and were complete w/ sentinels watching etc. We were able to get one, but people coming in around 11:15 were shut out and extremely irritated…

I’m sorry, but Sue cracks me up. You’re an adult, and you’re seriously going to cry over not getting a Saratoga t-shirt? Those things die off in about 2-3 times of wearing the thing. Wash it once or twice and you’ll see the logo and front picture already fading away from the clothing.

In fact, give me $3 and I can make you one myself. All I need is a $1 store t-shirt, and some markers.

Sue that’s pretty childish, and even if you did reserve the paddock tent, you have to realize it’s SARATOGA ON A GIVE AWAY DAY. You’re not going to get the Queen Elizabeth treatment because you reserved a tent. You still have to get your butt to the gates.

The folks who have commented so far seem to be annoyed with the fact that you, along with “Karen”s uncle, aunt and mother, have deprived the community-at-large of freebie souvenirs. Kristi, with regards to your response (#5) to Adesta, you say you understand her concerns, but you don’t necessarily indicate whether you agree with ’em. Earlier, (#3) you concede that you were a bit “ashamed.” Here’s my question: do you think your friend and her fiance were wrong to enslit four friends/family members to do what they should have done for themselves?

Part of the fun of planning a wedding is that it’s one of the first times a couple gets to work in concert with one another, to see how they interact and manage a project together. It doesn’t appear that’s occured here.

Doug, good questions. I don’t think Karen and her fiancee were wrong. Part of being a friend (and especially being in someone’s wedding) is doing the “grunt work.”

As someone who’s been in several weddings, and been the MOH more than once, I do stand by the belief that it’s my job to do whatever it takes (as long as it’s legal :)) to make her happy and ease the planning process!

As for their absence, they didn’t help out because getting here would have required two round-trip plane tickets. That’s just a serious waste of money- especially because Karen comes home this weekend for dress shopping.

It seems like it would have been much easier, fairer, and saved a lot of flack if your friend just went to a t-shirt printing place and print up 65 customized saratoga t-shirts.
Especially because many people don’t find the same amount of sentimental value in a wedding goodie bag as the person planning the wedding imagines…

I think the easier route and to save money and time/energy would be to spin once, then take a tee shirt to one of those shops that can copy them and just buy them. It certainly wouldn’t be $10.00 a piece if you were buying in bulk. Many of the ones on ebay are knock-offs already, so what’s the difference?

Nowhere in the story about you taking 65 shirts did it indicate you felt ashamed. You made it seem normal! Now you’re saying you felt embarrassed because people brought it to your attention. That’s why I was asking if there was one per person. There should be. But I mean, I guess karma sucks and your frustration was payback for “spinning”. Kinda silly though. Maybe you should’ve bought them on Ebay in a month..isn’t their wedding next year anyway?

I save as I write, so I don’t lose anything, and I think Amanda only saw the first few paragraphs (because that’s all that was there). She has mentioned she’s an RSS feed reader, so she would have gotten notice at my first save, and not realized I was typing and saving, typing and saving, etc.

People are threatening to leave the blog over this…calling it “unfair” and “selfsh.” Don’t people have anything else to be outraged about??

Personally, I’m with Marty, who suggested getting one T and paying someone to make up the additional 64, and with Robin, who suggests that guests never seem to be as sentimental about all those freebies as the bride & groom.

One more comment, and then I’ll shut up about this: I am with Kristi in her belief that if you find yourself in the wedding party, and certainly if you are the MOH, you must do just about all you can to pitch in. So, I guess if that happens to include a scavenger hunt for T-shirts, so be it.

Thanks to you, Ms. Gustafson, my Dad did not get a T-shirt. Now he is naked from the waist up. And he has man boobs. See how our ill-conceived decisions affect others? Will you be able to stand tall at Karen’s wedding without thinking of a poor old doughy man with man boobs? Worse yet, think of all the children who have to look upon such a sight.

Seriously, how can people be so angry over this? I think it was a very cute idea. Not to mention that spinning is as much a track tradition as Travers and big hats. If you’re that concerned about getting a t-shirt, get in line when the gates open. I was there, and waited until the t-shirt line died down by the 4th race. I had no problem getting a shirt!!!

Funny that you mention they ran out of coupons and others said they could not get a shirt.
I was by the tent near the track at the end of the giveaway and could clearly see that they still had 20 or so boxes of shirts available that they were packing up.
These boxes were never opened.
Saratoga on a giveaway day – anyone know what the “official” attendance was ?

Everything, especially giveaways and tables, about the track is exactly how it should be…first come first served. If Kristi and her peeps were able to get 65+ t-shirts, which required them to go through the gates and/or spinner table and redemption lines multiple times, there is no good reason why all of the people above didn’t get a shirt. You seriously can’t expect to show up at 4pm for a giveaway that starts at 10:30am and still be able to get a shirt. This also applies to showing up after 11am and expecting to find a table…that is why the gates open at 7am! Someone in our party usually goes up early, puts items on a table or we set up a tarp and some chairs and leave until 11am or so, it has been this way for the 20+ years I have been going to the track. And don’t even think about swiping a table that is saved…I saw a 75 year old man nearly beat a family of 4 for removing his table cloth and stealing the table!

p.s. the shirts are good quality, i still wear my 2004 shirt ALL THE TIME and see them on other people frequently!

I don’t care about the morality of getting extra shirts — I agree with Skinny (No. 26) that it is ridiculous to quibble over something so inconsequential as free t-shirts. But, I do think that it was a really self-centered thing for this bride to ask her friends and family to do — it’s really just too much to ask of your wedding party. Coming for dress fittings, helping assemble goodie bags or favors and that kind of thing is all expected, but I think that this was way beyond the call of duty.

I’d bet less than half of the people getting ready to come to blows over freebies at the track are from “Smallbany”. I am not sure what places you consider cooler to be from than Albany, but from a quick look around the parking lots you would see a lot of cars with NJ, CT, MA, and VT plates and lots of dealer plate frames from other and possibly cooler (ie not Smallbany) parts of NYS.
I don’t think there is any reason to be ashamed of going through the gates again and again for 65 shirts, lots of people do it, it is as much a tradition as the racing itself. Besides it makes for a much more interesting story at the wedding than if you just made copies of the 2008 shirt.

HOW about the multi-BILLION dollar industry and NYRA just buy more freaking shirts?. The people who “spin” to sell for profit should be embarrased. go get another job for a couple hours, because honestly how much can you make?……… The other people probably take the last piece of pizza from the box without asking anyone else if they are still hungry. You cant tell me they arent selfish and self centered. Anyone “buy” some for charity donations?…I couldnt cause THEY WERE ALL GONE TO SELFISH PEOPLE who NEEDED more than one a piece.

I don’t even remember this post, probably because I could care less if Kristi or anyone else got 100 shirts and someone else didn’t. Is it REALLY that big of deal? As KG said, the shirts are pretty cheap and corny, who really goes to the track to enhance their wardrobe with at free t-shirt? Get over it…

But Goose, I didn’t start coming here until after Sue left. And Goose, how does one reopen a thread 4 months after it died especially with regards to some woman whining over some shirts that she did not get for free. She sounded like my son when he doesn’t get the T-Shirt thrown to him at the Siena games but I expect that from a 4-year old. The only people that should have qualms over this should be the cheapskates that put these under someone’s tree at Christmas (there are and they know who they are) and the college kids that wanted 7 so they had one for each day of the week to meet their “clean clothes” quota.

Not saying what she did was RIGHT and yeah you can be mad and upset but seriously its a shirt plain and simple. As far as it looks she stood in line like everyone else and waited her turn to get one, if you go someplace then be prepared to be there early to get the item despite buying your reserved table it does not entitle you to come at 4pm and demand a shirt, wait liek everyone else. I understand Krisiti’s assistance in helping her friend for a wedding is there other ways this could have been done sure but she didn’t do anythign wrong did the track say one per coupon?

To enforce one per person this could be done : EVERYONE gets their hand stamped to prevent people from getting more than one of the give-aways and spinning should not be allowed – PERIOD ! This inflates the actual numbers given each day of the people who attended the track.